Estimating the speed-crash relationship has long been a focus area of interest in roadway safety analysis. Because of many confounding factors that may influence both speeds and crashes, the relationship cannot be appropriately established without considering the corresponding roadway characteristics and accounting for their effects on speeds and crashes. Texas A&M Transportation Institute researchers Eun […]
safety
Implementation of Bicycle and Pedestrian Monitoring Equipment
As the number of bicyclists on our roadways grows, so does the desire to accurately count how many there are and where they are traveling. TxDOT teamed up with Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers to evaluate the best bicycle monitoring equipment and to produce a user-friendly database for public use. The TTI video production […]
TTI’s Teens in the Driver Seat® Launches New App to Encourage Safety in Young Drivers
Car crashes account for nearly one-third of all teen deaths in America each year. As a part of National Teen Driver Safety Week Oct. 18–24, teen advocates of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) program launched its You in the Driver Seat (YDS) smartphone app, aimed at encouraging safer […]
FCC Radio Spectrum Reallocation Could Impair Vehicle Safety
By Gretchen Stoeltje and Greg Winfree If you’ve been designing or building roads in recent years, you are probably familiar with the anticipated safety benefits of connected vehicles and the technology that will be required to make them work. You probably know that in order for connected vehicles to communicate with one another and with […]
Data From High-Tech Cars Can Help Pinpoint Road Safety Improvements and Prevent Crashes
Using the data produced by connected cars can improve safety for all of us. By Eva Shipp and Shawn Turner A growing number of higher-tech cars and trucks on the road are talking to us. And if we pay attention to what they’re saying, we could prevent a lot of crashes and save a lot […]
TTI Proving Grounds Crew Nearly Beats Crash Test Record, Despite COVID-19
Despite a worldwide pandemic that shut down businesses and kept most workers at home through the spring and much of the summer, 37 Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers, technicians and support staff in the Roadside Safety and Physical Security Division have been working nonstop conducting a near-record number of crash tests for clients across […]
National School Bus Safety Week Recognizes Challenges, Best Practices in Difficult Times
National School Bus Safety Week (Oct. 19–23, 2020) recognizes the importance of school bus safety with various activities aimed at teaching students how to be safer in and around school buses. The week also highlights ways roadway users can practice safer behaviors whenever they encounter buses on the roadway, helping to keep our children safer. […]
College Students, Traffic Safety Professionals Attend Virtual 2020 U in the Driver Seat Symposium
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) U in the Driver Seat (UDS) education and outreach program held its virtual 2020 UDS Symposium Oct. 7–9. Now in its eighth year, the symposium raises awareness about the leading cause of death for young adults ages 18–25 — traffic crashes. This year’s theme was “recharge to save lives […]
Bringing the Passion at the Virtual 2020 Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference
People in the child passenger safety field are some of the most passionate advocates you’ll ever meet. And they infused passion into the virtual 2020 Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference Sept. 9–11, 2020. The fourth annual event had more than 400 attendees, most of whom are child passenger safety technicians (CPSTs). Organized by the Texas […]
Winfree Featured in Bloomberg CityLab Article
Texas A&M Transportation Institute Agency Director Greg Winfree was featured as a contributor in a recently-published story on Bloomberg CityLab. “The Life-Saving Car Technology No One Wants” explores why safety features that would make vehicles far less lethal to pedestrians exist right now, but are not required. Read the full article on Bloomberg CityLab
Texas Roads Less Crowded, but No Less Dangerous
Reformation Austin News highlights the COVID-19 traffic trend of fewer vehicles on Texas roadways but the lack of a commensurate reduction in fatal crashes. TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety Director Robert Wunderlich discusses his analysis of the data behind those findings. Read the Reformation Austin News story
A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Safety Innovation at the 2020 Virtual Traffic Safety Conference
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the first ever virtual Traffic Safety Conference June 10–12, 2020. The conference, supported by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), focused on traffic safety issues and forward-looking research aligned with TxDOT’s goal to end all traffic fatalities on Texas roadways by 2050. For more information on the zero […]
The Safe System Approach with Robert Wunderlich, P.E.
Robert Wunderlich, P.E., ITE Fellow and Director of the Center for Transportation Safety at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, discusses the Safe System approach to reducing serious injuries and fatalities on roadways. He highlights the various aspects of the Safe System, including roadway design that reduces user error and lowers impact forces, and explains what […]
Texas’ Seven Deadly Safety Stats*
* Statistics are relative to all Texas traffic crash fatalities (2010–2016) and taken from the Texas Strategic Highway Safety Plan website (https://www.texasshsp.com/).
YTS Program Adapts Young Driver Outreach for Online Learning
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Youth Transportation Safety (YTS) program — part of the Institute’s Center for Transportation Safety — is active in schools and communities across the country. The program supports peer-led road safety education and outreach to encourage young drivers to practice safe driving behaviors. When schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
Redesigned LookLearnLive.org Expands Content, Improves Usability
When Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Scientist Michael Manser sought a redesign of LookLearnLive.org, his number-one priority was to improve its usability as a resource for stakeholders in motorcycle safety. The site supports the safety and awareness campaign developed by TTI, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Public Safety […]
Safer by Design: New TTI Tool Prioritizes Roadway Safety from the Get-Go
MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE — that’s the old carpenter’s adage aimed at improving quality and reducing error. A new tool created by researchers at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) can help engineers achieve similar efficiencies when designing roadways while saving lives and reducing injuries. Typically, roadway designs are largely dictated by engineering decisions driven […]
A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Safety Innovation at the 2020 Virtual Traffic Safety Conference
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the first-ever virtual Traffic Safety Conference June 10–12, 2020. The conference, supported by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), focused on traffic safety issues and forward-looking research aligned with TxDOT’s goal to end all traffic fatalities on Texas roadways by 2050. For more information on the zero deaths […]
Groundbreaking Motorcycle Net Containment System for Concrete Barriers
For decades, concrete barriers have proven successful in helping vehicles stay on the roadway during a crash. Sometimes motorcyclists also crash into these barriers and are often injured or killed if thrown over the top. Researchers from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Roadside Safety and Physical Security Division designed and tested a semi-rigid containment […]
Texas Impaired Driving Task Force Encourages Virtual Happy Hour Drinkers to Stay Home
SOCIAL DISTANCING GUIDELINES during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted people to get creative with the ways they socialize with friends and family. With alcohol sales on the rise and more people staying at home, virtual happy hours were born. One option for holding a virtual happy hour: having a meetup from the comfort of your home […]